“Our country, communities, and congregations need an immigration system that works for migrants, refugees, and America,” said Brittney Nystrom, LIRS Director for Advocacy. “We call on Congress to enact compassionate and just immigration laws aligned with our five principles for reform: an earned opportunity for the undocumented to attain citizenship, just and humane enforcement, uniting migrant and refugee families, protecting those fleeing persecution, and safeguarding the rights of U.S. citizen and migrant workers.”

“We will continue to let our elected leaders know that people of faith stand for fair and compassionate immigration reform,” said Nystrom.

At a press conference on Wednesday, House Speaker John Boehner said that he is unwilling to go to conference with the U.S. Senate on S.744, a comprehensive immigration reform bill passed by the upper chamber earlier this year.

“Members of the House of Representatives should be actively seeking to create an immigration system that is rooted in justice and a recognition that all persons have dignity, said Nystrom. “This is not only the moral response to our antiquated and inadequate immigration laws, it is the smart and economically wise approach to strengthening our nation.”

“Our immigration laws should unite families, not tear them apart,” Nystrom added. “Congress must jump at the current opportunity to improve how we welcome, and in turn benefit from, migrants and refugees. Now is the time to build an immigration system that lives up to our national ideals of liberty and justice for all.”

LIRS is nationally recognized for its leadership with and for refugees, asylum seekers, unaccompanied children, immigrants in detention, families fractured by migration, and other vulnerable populations. LIRS serves migrants through over 60 grassroots legal and social service partners nationwide. Learn more at https://www.lirs.org/.